SC restores PTI’s party status and grants reserved seats.   

• The Supreme Court of Pakistan today announced that Pakistan Tehreeh-e-Insaaf (PTI) will be allotted reserved seats.
• Moreover, the court has notified PTI as a political party and given it 15 days to provide a list of reserved seats.
• Moreover, the court ruled that the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to allocate reserved seats to other parties was unconstitutional.
• In the General Elections of February 24, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) candidates contested independently as the party was deprived of its election symbol, ‘Bat’.
• After elections, PTI-independent candidates had to ally with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) to get reserved seats and form the government.
• Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan denied them reserve seats in March ’24 and re-distributed them amongst other parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
• In the National Assembly, PML-N, PPP, and JUI gained 16, 5, and 2 seats, respectively.

SIC filed a case in Peshawar High Court, but the court still had the ECP’s decision.

• The SIC approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which suspended PHC’s verdict and ECP’s decision on June 6, 24.
• A full 13-member judge’s bench was formed to hear the SIC’s petitions to restore the seats, with the decision reserved for July 9th, 2024.
• Today, the decision was announced, reducing the ruling government majority in the National Assembly to 62% from 68% previously.

 Courtesy – AHL Research